


how to save the world 101

by UnluckiestFridays



Series: this is going to get messy [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Confusion, Family, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22956211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnluckiestFridays/pseuds/UnluckiestFridays
Summary: The world doesn't end and all because when they were younger, Number Five and his siblings time travelled and ended up on a space ship with an enigmatic blonde alien and her 'fam'.
Series: this is going to get messy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649695
Comments: 34
Kudos: 159





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of the new season about to come out for TUA and the final part of DW S12 tomorrow (or today, because it's almost one am) I give you, a DW/TUA crossover.
> 
> Enjoy :) x

A boy's knife impaled the wooden table and a glare was sent towards the man at the other end. The man looked up at the sound of the knife hitting the table and placed his own cutlery down with pursed lips. 

The noise from the other six children seated at the table stopped as they all lifted their eyes to look at the boy and the man. In the background, talking from a record player droned on. Familiar background noise to those at the table and the woman stood just behind the man. 

"Number Five," the man acknowledged the boy.

"I have a question," the boy said.

The man sighed in annoyance. 

"We've been over this, Number Five," he replied levelly, "knowledge is an admirable goal, but you know the rules. No talking during mealtimes. You are interrupting Herr Carlson."

But Number Five wasn't satisfied. He grit his jaw and looked away for a brief moment before turning back to the man. He rested his elbows on the table and clasped his hands in front of him.

"I want to time travel," he announced.

"No," the man denied immediately and swiftly went back to eating.

"But I'm ready," Number Five continued, pushing out from his seat and standing up, "I've been practising my spacial jumps, just like you said."

With a flash of blue, Number Five disappeared from where he stood and reappeared beside the man at the head of the table. No one batted an eye.

"See?" Number Five pressed.

The man reached for his glass of wine as he replied to Number Five, "a spacial jump is trivial when compared with the unknowns of time travel. One is like sliding along the ice, the other is akin to descending blindly into the depths of the freezing water and reappearing as an acorn." 

"I don't get it," Number Fiver shook his head with the hint of a smirk on his face.

"Hence the reason you're not ready," the man sipped his wine and placed it back down on the table.

Number Five shared a look with the girl on the opposite end of the table, his sister. She shook her head, discouraging him, but he merely turned back to the man.

"I'm not afraid," he told him.

"Fear isn't the issue," the man told him, "the effects it might have on your body, even on your mind, are far too unpredictable. I forbid you to talk about this anymore. Now, sit down and finish your dinner, Number Five."

Number Five clenched his jaw and stared down at the man from where he stood beside him. There seemed to be some internal conflict brewing in the boy's mind. After a tense moment, he scoffed and jumped back to his seat with a flash. He picked up his fork, stabbed a piece of steak, and began to angrily cut it with his knife.

The issue was quietened after that and everyone went back to their food in silence. A slight awkwardness remained in the air, however, and the boy continued to shoot glares at the man throughout the rest of their meal.

* * *

"So, what'll it be, fam?" An enigmatic blonde woman dressed a little oddly bounded around her time-space ship as she spoke to her gathered friends. "Future? Past? Another planet? Oh, what about a combination of the three?"

"I'm sorry, Doc, but how can you combine all three?" The eldest of the three gathered friends questioned sceptically.

"You can do anything if you try hard enough, Graham," the Doctor told him seriously, momentarily stopping in her flouncing about.

Before Graham could further question the Doctor, another woman spoke up, younger than the two adults and with her long hair styled into space buns.

"Can we go to the future?" She asked hopefully. "Earth's future?"

"See, that's more like it, Yaz," the Doctor grinned at the girl, "none of those boring questions like Graham has."

"Oi, I rather think that was a very valid question, thank you very much," Graham protested, much to everyone's amusement, "I mean, for starters, how can you combine the past and the future? It don't make no sense."

"Course it does," the Doctor rebuffed his claims.

The other friend, a dark-skinned boy with eyes shining with amusement, leaned closer to Graham as the Doctor began to explain how you _could_ apparently combine the past and future.

"Best to just let her ramble, eh, gramps?" He smiled.

"It just don't make no sense," Graham grumbled quietly and crossed his arms.

* * *

When the sky had fallen dark and the stars had reappeared to shine brightly above the Earth, six children dressed in identical pyjamas crept silently along the equally as quiet hallways.

One of them, a boy with curly hair sat messily atop his head and a mischievous grin on his face led them all, seemingly unbothered by his siblings' nervous faces.

"We should be in bed," the blond boy at the back of the group pointed out worriedly.

When no one else responded, he spoke up again, this time a little more forcefully.

"If we get caught, we're in trouble."

"Then we'd better not get caught, huh?" The boy at the front responded.

"Look, Four, I don't know why we couldn't just ask him in the morning," the blond continued as he caught up with Four at the front of the group and they rounded a corner.

"When? We don't have any free time until Sunday and that's a whole five days away," Number Four pointed out, "besides, this way is more fun, don't you think?"

"Are you high?" The blond sniffed disdainfully and made a face.

"Of course, mi Hermano," Number Four slung an arm around his brother's shoulder only to get shoved off with annoyance.

"I have half the mind to tell dad."

"And what are you going to say, dearest Number Uno? That you knew your brother was high because you were out of bed at night? Or that you were out of bed so you could speak to Number Five?" Number Four retorted.

Number One faltered and looked towards the rest of the siblings who were watching him carefully. Eventually, his face fell into a neutral expression and he sighed.

"Fine," he crossed his arms unhappily.

"Good," Number Four smiled and turned to the door they'd all stopped by, "oh, look, we're here."

The door was plain, but in the centre, there was a number printed on. It simply read 00.05.

Number Four raised his hand and rapped a merry tune on its surface then brought his hand back down to wait.

"Go away," came the voice of Number Five from inside the room.

Four gasped dramatically and placed a hand to his chest in faux shock. 

"Is that any way to speak to your favourite brother?" He replied.

Not even a second later, the door flew open and Number Five stood in the doorway with annoyance written all over his face.

"You're not my favourite brother," he told Number Four.

"Yeah? Then who is?" Number Four challenged.

"What do you imbeciles want?" Number Five swiftly changed the subject. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Number Four leaned to the side to peer around his brother and spotted a digital alarm clock on his bedside table. He read the numbers and faced Five again. 

"Midnight?" He tried.

"What do you want?" Five demanded again.

"Can we come in?" Number One spoke before Four did.

Number Five looked at him in silence for a moment and then pursed his lips and sighed with frustration. He stepped to the side and held the door open further, gesturing them inside. 

Without another word, the siblings entered the bedroom and made themselves at home lounging around on the bed or the floor.

Five stopped for a brief moment to gather his bearings before closing the door after his sister and joining them.

He stood in front of them, arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. 

"So? What is it that you want?" He asked them for the third time.

The siblings shared a look, most of them turning to Number Four who, in turn, shrugged.

"I didn't think he'd actually let us in," he told them.

"You're useless," one of the only two sisters shook her head disapprovingly at Number Four, then turned to Number Five, "so, you think you can time travel?"

"I don't think," he told her seriously, almost offended, "I know."

"How?" His sister challenged with a smirk.

Number Five scoffed with amusement.

"You wouldn't understand," he retorted.

"You always think you're better than us," a quiet voice piped up from the corner of the room.

The siblings looked over to find their brother, their quieter, more timid brother who preferred to keep to himself, hovering in the corner. He almost shrank under their gaze and the sudden attention, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

"What?" Number Five scoffed.

The boy looked away from where he'd been staring at the wall and turned his gaze to Five.

"You," the boy said, "you always think you're better than us. But just because you can spacial travel at will and are a bit smarter than us, doesn't mean you are. You're just like the rest of us. Stuck playing superheroes, taking down bad guys when dad tells us to and given a life that was decided for us the second we were born. You're no better than the rest of us."

Silence fell over them at his final word and they looked away to mull over what he'd said. Not even Number One, usually the most loyal of them of when it came to their father, said anything in regards to what his brother had said.

Number Five shook his head and uncrossed his arms, pacing the room. 

"I know I can time travel because I've done it before," he admitted.

"What? When?" Number One asked.

"A few months ago."

"W-wh-where did you g-go?" One of the brothers asked.

"When," Five corrected, "I travelled an hour into the future. I realise it's not much, but it happened. I can time travel. I hope, one day, to go further into the future. A day. A week. Maybe even a year."

At his admission, the siblings shared a look. 

"Prove it," Number Four blurted, a grin on his face.

Number Five paused in his pacing and faced Number Four. 

"You're high," he noted.

"Yeah, yeah, we've been over this," Number Four stood from the bed, "prove you can time travel."

"I have nothing to prove to you," Number Five rose an eyebrow.

"Are you scared?"

"Of what?" Number Five scoffed.

"I don't know, you tell me," Number Four shrugged.

"S-stop it."

"We had extra training because of him today, Two," Four turned briefly to look at his brother, "the least he can do is prove he can actually time travel."

"Fine," Number Five huffed, "I've been practising without dad's knowledge, so I'll be back in five minutes."

Before Five could disappear, though, Four placed a hand on his arm, causing him to pause. 

"How do we know you won't just jump to a different location and come back in five minutes?"

"What are you talking about, Four?" Five rolled his eyes.

"Well, we have no way of knowing whether or not you've actually time travelled," Four shrugged.

"He's got a point," their sister pointed out.

"Well, what do you expect me to do then?" Number Five snapped.

"Take us with you," Number Four suggested with a grin.

"It doesn't work like that," Number Five denied.

"What do you mean?"

"I've only ever time travelled by myself. I've never travelled with another person, let alone _six_ other people."

"Oh, right," Number Four crossed his arms, "so, you are scared?"

"I didn't say that," Five grit out.

"Then you won't mind taking us with you," Four said.

"I told you it doesn't work like that. I can't just go jumping everyone through time willy nilly," Five said slowly.

"Scared," Four coughed, looking away.

"I am not scared."

"Prove. It."

"Fine," Five snapped, "fine. Grab my hand."

While Number Four looked surprised that his pestering had actually worked and he let out a shocked chuckle, he obeyed the command and held out his hand for his brother. Number Five squeezed it, causing Number Four to wince in pain before Five loosened his hold.

The other siblings remained where they were until Five looked at them, annoyed. 

"Well?" He prompted impatiently.

With that, they got up and joined Numbers Five and Four. The only one who remained outside of the circle unsurely was Number One.

"Are you coming or not?" Number Five rolled his eyes.

"I really don't think we should be doing this," Number One replied, "what if we get caught? We'll be in trouble."

"We won't," Number Five said surely, "we're only going five minutes into the future. Dad won't ever know."

"But-"

"Hurry up or we really will get caught."

Reluctantly, Number joined the circle and grabbed his siblings' hands, making it complete. With a deep breath, Number Five closed his eyes in concentration and unknowingly tightened his grip on his siblings' hands, to which they grunted.

It was a long few seconds before anything happened. First, it was the wind, though the window in Five's room was locked shut. It whipped about and sent their hair flying in all sorts of directions with strong gusts of wind. Then, a portal appeared above their heads. It was the same colour that came when Number Five spacial jumped, though this time it was brighter and somehow much stronger.

The siblings gaped above them in wonder and admiration and when Number Five opened his eyes again, he smirked with pride.

That was until his face morphed into something resembling panic.

"Something's wrong," he shouted over the noise of his portal.

"What?" One of the sisters demanded.

"I don't think we're going five minutes into the future!"

"How do you know?" Number One tried to let go of Number Four's hand, but his brother held on tight with wide eyes.

"I can feel it!"

"W-where are w-w-we going?" His brother stuttered out.

"I don-"

With a mighty _whoosh,_ the siblings along with the giant portal vanished into thin air. A second too late, two humanoids and one ape burst into the room only to find it empty.

* * *

"So, as I said," the Doctor began to conclude her explanation, "it is, in fact, entirely possible to combine both past and future. Unfortunately, your lot don't figure that out until much too late. By then-"

A warp followed by several thuds cut through her rambling, however, she didn't pause in talking, somehow too busy focusing on piloting her ship and rambling on to notice. On the other hand, her friends stopped paying attention to her in favour of gawping at the children who'd just appeared from thin air with a flash and landed on the floor of the ship.

"Uh, Doctor?" Yaz interrupted the woman, but she didn't seem to hear her. She was absorbed in her own world, trying to explain something they'd stopped trying to understand half an hour ago.

_"Doctor!"_

"Yes, Ryan?" The Doctor looked up at her younger male companion with curiosity.

"Look," Ryan pointed at the children in pyjamas who were cautiously getting up from the floor and looking around with wide eyes.

The Doctor turned around and startled in surprise, her eyes going wide and mouth falling open.

"What? How did you lot get in here? Who even are you?" She demanded with confusion.

"It really baffles me how you've survived this long if you don't even notice a bunch of kids teleporting into your ship," Graham commented. 

"Teleporting?" The Doctor repeated but didn't comment on the rest of his sentence. "What?"

"Who are you? What is this place?" Number One questioned as he stepped forward in front of his siblings.

"Are you British?" Number Four grinned.

"What?" The Doctor blurted.

"Are you American?" Ryan deflected.

"How did you get in here?" The Doctor cut off whatever Number Four was about to say in response to Ryan.

"How did _you_ get in here?" Number Four asked.

"This is my TARDIS," the Doctor crossed her arms.

"Your what?" Four's sister, Number Three, scoffed. "That isn't even a word."

"Yes, it is. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. TARDIS," the Doctor grinned proudly.

"So, that's what it stands for," Graham looked, suddenly, like a lot of things made sense for him. 

"What does that even mean?" Number Three rolled her eyes.

"It means this is my space ship," the Doctor explained.

"Spa-"

"And you lot shouldn't have been able to get in here," the Doctor cut her off, "the shields are up."

"Then they're not very good, are they?" Number Three sassed.

"Not very- I'll have you know that this is the best time-space ship in all the known universe," the Doctor retorted with offense.

"Time ship? Your ship travels in time?" Number Six questioned curiously.

"Yup," the Doctor beamed.

"Wait, if this is a space ship," Number One realised, "are we in space?"

"Yes. Hovering above Earth. We were just about to go to another planet," the Doctor nodded.

"I've always wanted to travel in space," Number One smiled, "does it have windows? Can I have a look outside?"

"Windows? Pah, who needs them when you can just open the doors?"

"Open the- wait!" Number One cried in alarm as the Doctor bounded down from the console and to the seemingly wooden doors. "Don't-"

Before he could get another word out, the Doctor flung the doors open and revealed the vast expanse of space. Number One and the rest of his siblings immediately held their breath in horror, only to, very slowly, begin to breathe again when they didn't get sucked out into the vacuum of space.

"No one ever tell you not to hold your breath in space?" The Doctor questioned casually, leaning against the doorway. "Your lungs will explode."

"Lovely," Graham muttered sarcastically.

"She's great with kids," Ryan joked quietly to Yaz.

"H-how are w-we b-b-breathing?" Number Two questioned.

"An answer for an answer," the Doctor replied as she shut the doors, hiding away the beauty of space, "I'll answer your questions if you answer mine."

Number One shared a look with Number Three, and, after some unspoken agreement, they turned back to the Doctor and nodded. 

"Fine," Number Three relented.

"Okay, good, because I have loads." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gave them their comic powers to mix the story up a bit :p but it will be following the show plot
> 
> I'm literally having the time of my life writing this story, i hope you all enjoy it as much as i am :D x

"Right, first of all, who are you? What are your names?" The Doctor questioned the children as she rushed back to the console.

They watched her go and then shared a look as if urging each other to speak first. Eventually, before a decision could be made, Number Four spoke. 

"I'm Number Four, these are my siblings, Numbers One, Two, Three, Five, Six, and Seven," he introduced them, pointing at each sibling in turn.

"You what?" Graham blurted. "Those are numbers, not names."

"Yes, they are, they're _our_ names," Number Three retorted as her siblings looked baffled by Graham's response.

"Numbers ain't names, mate," Ryan shook his head, "that's messed up."

Before Number One, whose face was morphed with annoyance, could reply and tell Ryan what he really thought, the Doctor jumped in to diffuse the tension.

"Right, uh, and you're all human?" She prompted hopefully.

"Of course," Number One frowned in confusion.

"Unless you count the Horrors," Number Four grinned cheekily and wiggled his fingers.

"The what?" The Doctor replied.

"Nothing," Number One crossed his arms while, behind him, Number Two nudged Number Four and quietly told him to shut up.

"Okay," the Doctor trailed off for a moment and tilted her head curiously before perking up again, "okay, next question, why is he unconscious? What happened?"

"He exhausted himself bringing us all here," Number One revealed, a hint of concern flashing on his face as his eyes landed on Number Five unconscious in Number Seven's arms.

"Bringing you all here? How do you mean?"

"It was just supposed to be a five-minute jump to the future to prove that he really could time travel, but we ended up here instead."

"How do you mean? Prove he could time travel?" The Doctor slowly crept forward, her interest piqued.

"Four didn't believe he could time travel as well as spacial travel," Number One shrugged, "so he made Five prove it and bring us with him."

"I don't understand," the Doctor admitted, "are you saying your brother can travel through time and space without a ship?"

"Of course," Number Three piped up, " _some_ people don't need a ship to do that."

Despite the obvious dig at her, the Doctor ignored it and focused on the first part of what she'd said. Number Five could time and spacial travel. Without a ship. But humans, as far as she was aware if you didn't count Grant, didn't have powers. At all. 

That's what made them so brilliant in the Doctor's eyes. They didn't need any special powers or to be able to regenerate and live thousands of years to do amazing things. They didn't need a second heart to show possibly dangerous amounts of love and compassion. They didn't need any of that to show their brilliance.

"Hang on, Doc," Graham shook his head and the Doctor turned to him, "are they sayin' this kid has powers or somethin'?"

"Of course, he does," Number Three smirked, "we all do. Well, except Number Seven." 

"Right," the Doctor pursed her lips, "okay. Definitely an unexpected turn of events that not even I could have foreseen. Brilliant."

"You've got powers?" Ryan stepped up beside the Doctor, eyes wide with wonder.

"Yes," Number One crossed his arms with pride and lifted his chin up as if to stare them all down.

"No way," Ryan shook his head, "what're your powers?"

As much as the Doctor wanted to tell Ryan it was rude to ask someone that (she thought, anyway), she had to admit she wanted to know too. Just to see what she was dealing with here, of course.

Not because she was curious or anything. 

The children shared a collective look and then Number One, who seemed to be in charge judging by the way he was acting and his number (were they numbered randomly? Or had there been thought behind it), took the lead.

"I have super strength," he revealed.

"I c-can m-m-manipulate any ob-object in the air a-and hold m-my b-b-breath indefinitely," Number Two said.

"I can make anyone and anything do what I want," Number Three smirked mischievously but didn't elaborate any further than that, not even at the Doctor's questioning look.

"I can see ghosts, levitate, move objects with my mind, and possess people," Number Four said, though all of his previous carefree behaviours had vanished and the Doctor guessed he wasn't very happy with his powers. She wouldn't be either, actually, if she could see ghosts. The ones in her head were already enough.

Finally, they all looked at Number Six with curiosity. However, the boy merely wrapped his arms around his stomach and shook his head quietly, shrinking under their gaze.

The Doctor tilted her head, scrutinising him as she wondered what could be so bad that a young boy like himself was so afraid to talk about his powers. In her very limited experience (Grant), young boys loved powers. 

"He doesn't like to talk about it," Number Four stage whispered to her. His carefree attitude was back and there was a grin on his face.

The Doctor nodded. That was fine. If he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't have to.

"And Seven doesn't have any powers?" Yaz asked.

"I'm not special," Seven confirmed, tucking some hair behind her ear.

Her siblings made no move to correct her, but the Doctor did.

"Of course you are!" She told her enthusiastically. "You don't need powers to be 'special'. _No one_ needs powers to be special. I mean, look at us. We don't have any powers and we're in a space ship. _You're_ in a space ship. Who else can safely say they've been in a bigger on the inside time-space ship above Earth with an alien and her best mates?"

"Bigger on the inside?" Number Four repeated. 

"Alien?" Number Three exclaimed.

"Ah, right, should I have mentioned that first?"

"I'm gettin' that, Doc," Graham agreed.

"There's no way your ship is bigger on the _inside_ ," Number One folded his arms again, "it's not possible."

"Wanna see?" The Doctor offered.

"Wait," Number Three interrupted, "how are you an alien?" 

"How are you human?" The Doctor retorted, earning a snort from Ryan.

"What kind of alien, I mean," Number Three rolled her eyes.

"The space kind."

Though Number Three opened her mouth to say something else, she was interrupted when someone else cut in. 

"What the hell is going on here?" A new voice grumbled with annoyance. "I feel like I've gone on a bender with Four."

All eyes landed on Number Four who shrugged. They looked back to Number Five. His face was pinched and he was rubbing his eyes with the pads of his thumb and forefinger.

Eventually, he removed his hand and opened his eyes. When he saw the honey-coloured ceiling above him, he sat up and looked around with a raised eyebrow.

"Where the hell are we?" He demanded as he staggered to his feet then straightened out his pyjamas.

"In space," Number Four said mysteriously.

"What?" Number Five eyed Number Four disbelievingly.

"We're on a spaceship," Number Seven quietly told him.

"How are we on a spaceship?"

"You brought us here," Number Three pointed out with annoyance, "you tell us."

"I don't know," Number Five retorted, "we were supposed to be going five minutes into the future but he-" he jabbed a finger at Number Four, "-insisted I bring you imbeciles with me."

"Hey, don't blame me!" Number Four gaped. "You're the one bragging about how you can time travel, getting us all extra training because you can't keep your mouth shut at the dinner table!"

"Well, it's not like you did much training anyway," Number Five hissed, "you were too high to do anything but sit on your f-"

"Woah, woah, woah! Hey," the Doctor rushed in and held her arms out when Number Five began stalking towards Number Four threateningly, "okay, that's enough of that, thank you very much. This is a place of peace and tranquillity."

Graham choked on a laugh and Yaz nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.

"It doesn't matter how you got here," the Doctor told them, decidedly ignoring her friends, "what matters is that you _are_ here and how we're going to get you home."

"Home?" Number Three repeated, suddenly her tough girl act seeming like a distant memory.

"Of course," the Doctor said, "I mean, you can't stay here forever. You have a home to return to and we have alien planets to explore."

The children all looked at each other, something akin to uncertainty in their eyes and facial expressions. Number Four's seemingly ever-present grin had fallen and he was gazing at the floor beneath his bare feet. Number Five's lips were pursed but he seemed, for lack of a better word, miserable. Number Six had shrunk back even further and was hunched in on himself, arms still wrapped around his stomach. The Doctor couldn't tell if the moving fabric of his shirt was because of his arms or if there was something else there.

Looking at the children, the Doctor couldn't help the feeling of her hearts clenching. She didn't know what she'd said to warrant this reaction, but she felt that something was wrong. Something to do with home, perhaps? Something else? Something complicated.

Who were these children, the Doctor found herself wondering as she looked at them? Where did they come from?

"Okay," she said before she could think too hard on her split-second decision, "I suppose you can stay for five more minutes? I mean, this is a time machine, after all. So, where do you want to go?"

"Doctor," Yaz hissed quietly beside her and then suddenly she was being dragged to the side as the children's faces lit up like Christmas come early. "What the hell are you doing? You can't take them to an alien planet, they're like, what, thirteen?"

"Don't worry, it'll be safe," the Doctor grinned, "the Old Girl will make sure of it."

As if to prove a point, the TARDIS whined pleasantly. In the background, the kids gasped and she could hear Graham explaining how the ship was sentient and the Doctor herself was always talking to her.

"But, still, what if it's not?" Yaz fretted. "You have to take them home. Seriously. This is reckless, even by your-"

Suddenly, without warning, the TARDIS rocked harshly to the left. The Doctor stumbled and landed against the console, her stomach taking the brunt of the force and winding her momentarily. Yaz joined her not even a second later and the Doctor quickly held a hand out to stop her from hitting the console too. 

"He's bleedin' levitating!" Graham shouted from somewhere on the other side of the console. "He's bloody-"

"Oh, my days!" Ryan joined in his granddad's exclamations.

Dragging herself across the console as the TARDIS rocked and jerked and tossed them all about, the Doctor managed to get to a point where she could see exactly what Graham was.

True to Graham's shouting, one of the children, Number Four, was levitating in the air to escape the space turbulence. He was holding onto Number One who, in turn, was holding his other siblings up in a human chain. There was nothing for them to hold onto and so they'd seemingly adapted and formed a solution which, apparently, involved levitation and superhuman strength.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Yaz's panicked voice drew the Doctor back to the current situation and she quickly straightened up and grabbed the console tightly.

She began pulling levers, pressing buttons, and twisting knobs in order to hopefully fix their turbulence problem.

"I don't know!" She shouted back to Yaz in the meantime. "We're experiencing some pretty bad turbulence, but we shouldn't be because I hadn't even taken off yet!"

"Where are we going?" Graham called over the noise of warping engines and wheezing.

The Doctor dragged herself around the console so she was on the other side, the one with levitating children, and grabbed the monitor as steadily as she could. So far, all it revealed was that they were currently travelling through the vortex.

"I don't know, we're in the vortex," she recounted back to Graham.

"That's just circles!" Number Three yelled.

"Maybe to you!" The Doctor retorted.

Honestly, that girl was the sassiest-

_Thud_

"Oof," the Doctor wheezed as she once again hit her stomach on the console with the force of their landing. "Does not get any better the second time 'round."

Everything fell silent apart from the sound of feet touching back down onto the floor behind her. 

The Doctor straightened up and brushed imaginary creases out of her coat to give herself something to do until her friends inevitably asked where they were. It was her favourite part.

"Where are we?" Number Five demanded.

The Doctor faltered. Usually, Yaz or Ryan asked that question. They said it with more enthusiasm- excitement, even. Five's tone was flat and bored.

Well. Beggars can't be choosers, she supposed. 

Grabbing the monitor, the Doctor gave it a quick read and smiled. She had no idea where they were.

"No idea," she spun around to face the others.

"Eh?" Graham frowned.

"You don't know what's out there?" Yaz prompted.

"Nope," the Doctor grinned, "it's brilliant. I love not knowing."

"Thought you hated it?" Ryan said.

"Times change, Ryan, keep up."

With that, she clapped him on the back and bounded away from the console towards the doors.

"Wait," Number One stopped her in her tracks before she could open them. She turned around to see him coming over to her. "So, is that an alien planet out there?"

"Hopefully," the Doctor grinned. It would be a little more interesting if it were an alien planet rather than Earth's past or future. No offence to them.

"Then, won't we need spacesuits?" Number One asked.

Smart boy, this one, she decided. And a love for space. She could see it in his eyes.

"Nah, doubt it," the Doctor shrugged, "besides, if we do, the TARDIS will put an oxygen bubble around us and we can return for some."

Number One nodded his head, relaxing marginally.

"Want to do the honours?" The Doctor smiled at him and gestured to the doors.

"Can I?" He lit up.

"Be my guest."

Number One shuffled closer to the door and took its handles in his hands. There was a moment's hesitation before he breathed in deeply and pulled them open. Colourful light illuminated his pale face and made his blond hair shine. Soft gusts of winds moved it about delicately and his eyes glistened as they stared in wonder at the alien planet outside.

"It's..."

"Beautiful," the Doctor finished. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, i am making allison a really sassy 13 y/o who is clashing w the doctor, but only because i think it'll be really funny :p
> 
> Hope you liked this chapter x


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, startingthis fic: this is a funny, lighthearted fic.
> 
> Me on the second chapter: not as funny as the previous chapter, but I'm happy with it :-)
> 
> Me, writing this chapter: so that went downhill real fast, huh

The Doctor stepped out onto the alien planet, dirt and orange leaves cruching beneath her boots. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she breathed in the distinct smell of another planet. It never got old, no matter how many planets she visited or how old she grew. 

Following her, the fam left the TARDIS and gazed around in wonder. Finally, the children exited the ship. The Doctor had gotten them some shoes and coats when a gust of wind had blown into the TARDIS after they'd opened the doors, and a everyone wore a pair of sunglasses each because of the triple suns in the sky. Best to safer than sorry. 

Once everyone was prepared to step outside, the Doctor decided it was time to get moving.

The children looked so out of place on the alien planet they'd arrived on, yet they gazed around with eyes alight with amazement and admiration. 

Number Seven's eyes didn't stray from the ginormous mountains off in the far distance, the three suns peeking over them reflecting in her bright eyes. Numbers Four and Six were taking a look at the foliage and their giant leaves. Number Five, strangely enough, was admiring the dirt hidden beneath the layer of dry leaves. Off to the far left, on the other side of a few trees, Numbers One and Three were staring into a pond of pink water.

The Doctor herself was taking in the atmosphere. The Old Girl had outdone herself this time, she decided. The planet was beautiful. 

"Right then, you lot, let's go exploring," she decided after exhaling a cloud of white smoke.

Everyone looked at her and she smiled at them all before taking off. She heard the sounds of them all scrambling to keep up with her.

It was only a couple of minutes of wandering through the tall trees and passing several strange plants later that Yaz caught up and fell into step beside her.

"I'm still annoyed with you," she whispered to her.

The Doctor frowned and looked at her. 

"Why? What did I do?" She asked.

"Bringing those kids to this planet," Yaz pointed out obviously, "you're being more irresponsible than usual."

"I am not," the Doctor defended herself, "this planet is safe, the Old Girl made sure of it. Besides, I didnt even pilot her, if you remember. She brought us here herself."

"That don't matter," Yaz said, "what matters is that we're here now and you've made no move to take those kids back to Earth like you should've. You know, ever since that whole thing with that Master bloke, you've been more reckless than usual. This is just ridiculous, Doctor."

The Doctor fell silent for a few seconds, staring at her. Yaz stared back, undeterred. Stubborn. 

Shaking her head, the Doctor sped up and took the lead again. From the way her footsteps slowed down a little, the Doctor could tell Yaz had gone back to the others.

As she walked, the Doctor tried to clear her mind of all thoughts regarded the Master. It was hard when his stupid face kept popping up everytime she tried to focus on something else, but eventually she managed it when a couple of the children came up to her with a question.

"So," Number Four said. Number Three was beside him. "If this is an alien planet, where are the aliens?"

"Besides you, of course," Number Three eyed her suspiciously.

"Not all planets are occupied," the Doctor shrugged, "maybe this one isn't."

"Our luck usually don't work like that," she heard Graham mutter to Ryan and Yaz, who in turn snickered. Her smile became a tad more forced as she focused at the children.

"So what is here, then? Besides trees and mountains?" Three questioned with a frown.

Number Six came to join them. His arms were still wrapped around his torso. The Doctor had only seen him remove them once and that was only to put his coat on.

"You don't get it, Three," he told his sister, "coming to an alien planet isn't just about seeing aliens."

Number Three huffed, but fell silent anyway and began to take in the scenery with more interest than before. These children, the Doctor decided as she briefly turned around and spotted Number Five rubbing a dry leaf between his thumb and forefinger, were a piece of work.

From there, the Doctor remained silent, simply to content to take in the scenery and listen to her human friends chatter about the planet and other stuff she only found mildly interesting. If her fam were confused with her unusual silence, they didn't comment on it and thus, she remained that way.

That was until one of the children, Number Four shouted something. It sounded far away and she scronched her face as she whirled around and found he wasn't even there. 

"Doctor!" Yaz drew her attention and pointed up in the sky.

The Doctor looked up and found Number Four casually floating up above all of their heads, almost level with the tree tops. Though she was fully aware of this apparently-human child's abilities, she couldn't help the way her stomachs plummeted. He was... really high.

His siblings were gathered around and staring up at him, either completely unbothered, amused, or annoyed at the sight of their brother several feet up in the air.

"Uh, Four," she called up.

The kid looked down at her, a grin on his face. 

"You should probably come down now."

"He's not going to fall," Number Three smirked and her siblings all snickered, as if agreeing with her. Either that or they just want to see what would happen if Number Four _did_ fall.

"Well, there was that one time," Number Seven quietly pointed out.

"W-what t-time?" Number Two questioned.

"When Three rumoured him in his sleep to be unable to levitate for twenty-four hours," Seven elaborated.

The Doctor didn't know what Seven meant by 'rumoured', but she would bet it had something to do Three's powers. She didn't like the idea of someone being able to make anyone or anything happen at will. Especially a human child. 

"Oh, yeah," Number Two laughed, "dad got so mad that Four couldn't levitate, he gave him extra training."

"Yeah, and it wasn't funny!" Number Four shouted down from up in the air.

"You're just mad," Number Three retorted.

"Of course, I'm mad. How would you like it if i rumoured _you_?"

"Well, you can't," Three shrugged, her smirk still in place.

Up above, Four blew a rasberry at her.

"Hey, I can see a building from up here!" Number Four swiftly changed the subject.

The Doctor almost got whiplash. She blinked and let the words register in her mind for a moment. A building. Oh!

"Which direction?" She called out to Number Four.

"East!"

"Well, that ain't very helpful," Graham grumbled, "which way is East?"

"That way," the Doctor pointed to her right and grinned, "come on!"

* * *

It took them almost an hour to find the building Number Four had seen. Number Five insisted on jumping ahead of them every so often just so he'd get there first, Number Four hadn't let his feet touch the ground since coming back down from the treetops, and Numbers One and Two wouldn't stop bickering.

The only ones who weren't being annoying were Number Three, surprisingly, Number Six and Number Seven. The latters, the Doctor could understand. They were fairly polite and quite shy, but for some reason, Number Three had taken a sudden interest in the scenery as they made their way to the building.

Well, the Doctor decided, it was a nice change from being interrogated on her non-human status, so she wasn't complaining.

They arrived in front of the building a few short moments later and the Doctor took a second to look at it. It was big, a few stories tall, with only six windows- two on each floor. It was grey, a horrible contrast to the beautiful foliage that surrounded it. It looked like it had been placed without thought in the middle of the forest.

Walking up to the door, the Doctor noticed it was made of a metal easily found on Earth. Iron. That would make it easier to open, then. 

Taking out her sonic, she aimed it at the door and pressed the button. A second later, it unlocked with a satisfying _click_.

"What is that?" Number Five appeared by her side with a warp of space.

A shiver ran up the Doctor's spine like it usually did whenever this boy altered space to his likings.

"It's my sonic," she told him proudly, "made it myself out of Sheffield metal."

"Sonic what?" Five prompted curiously.

"Sonic swiss army knife, but without the knife," the Doctor held her sonic up and let him admire it. "I'm all over sonic screwdrivers, this looks better, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't know," Five shrugged, "might I have a closer look, though?"

"Sure, but be careful," the Doctor agreed then handed the sonic over.

Number Five held it in both of his hands and brought it up to eye level to peer at the design. He admired the orange and and tapped it a couple of times with uis index.

"And what are some of its abilities? Can it unlock anything? Can it do more than unlock things?"

"Of course. Best sonic in the universe, that. Unfortunately, it can't unlock things that are deadlock sealed and it doesn't do wood. But I am working on it! I'll get 'round to it eventually, promise," the Doctor hastily reassured him.

"It doesn't do wood?" Number Five rose an eyebrow, passing back the sonic.

"No," the Doctor scronched her face and looked at the sonic sadly before putting it back in her pocket.

"Interesting," Number Five hummed and then stalked away to enter the building.

The Doctor was left with her face scronched in confusion. She didn't know what to think of that reaction. Was it good or bad? What did it mean?

"Uh," she trailed off, sharing a look with her amused fam.

"Come on, Doc," Graham chuckled, heading inside the building.

"Right, yes," she snapped out of it and quickly followed him inside.

Inside was dark with none of the many overhead lights on so she looked around anf found a grey, metal switch on the wall. She flicked it up and, following her command, the lights illuminated the room.

"Oh, no," she muttered.

Beside her, she heard Ryan's foot shuffle on the floor, as if getting ready to run should he need to.

In the corners of the room and directly in the centre, were several large nests. They were built up of what looked to be the planet's equivalent of straw, a bundle of twigs, and fur from the creatures lay atop of the nests. It was orange-y brown, the Doctor noted absently as one of the creatures opened its eyes in confusion.

Once the brown, watery eyes locked onto herself and the others, they became focused and less confused, more angry at being disturbed from its slumber. It was probably seeing them as a threat to the eggs they were laying atop.

It opened its mouth and let out a horrifying screech that pierced through the Doctor's ears. She covered them with her hands and closed her eyes momentarily. When she next opened them, the rest of the creatures had awoken and they were surrounded.

"Doctor, what do we do?" Yaz questioned her fearfully.

The Doctor looked over and noticed she had Number Six and Number Seven close to her. The other children, shockingly, looked ready for a fight.

"W-what are t-they?" Number Two questioned.

She turned to him to let him know that she had no idea and hadn't encountered these kinds of creatures before, only to find him holding knives in his hands. He was watching the creatures carefully. 

"Why have you got knives?" She hissed at him.

"To defend m-myself?" He retorted obviously.

"That's not- nevermind. Just don't use them, we can figure this out without violence," she told him surely. "As for you, Yaz, I have no idea yet. As soon as I figure out their intent, I work from there."

"Looks to me like they want to kill us, Doc," Graham pointed out.

"Yes, thank you, Graham," the Doctor huffed.

From the corner of her eye, the Doctor saw one of the creatures go flying back and hit the wall behind it. Her eyes widened and she whirled around to find the culprit. She spotted Number Four and Number Three sharing a high five. 

"Don't attack them!" She warned the children, hearts beating in fear for not only the childrens' safety, but for the creatures' too.

"They were going to attack us," Number Three pointed out.

"They're afraid, they're trying to protect their young," the Doctor retorted, "attacking them isn't helping."

"No offense, 'Doctor'," Number One spoke up, arms crossed. The Doctor cursed One's superiority complex and tried to listen to whatever he was about to say. "But we have trained for situations like these. This is a threat to us all and it has to be eliminated."

"I really hate whoever your parents are right now," the Doctor muttered to herself. "You don't have to kill them. They're afraid!"

"I heard a rumour you stopped talking," Number Three snapped.

The Doctor frowned and opened her mouth, but the words she'd carefully chosen to convince these children to be the better people didn't even move passed her voice box. It was like they were stuck.

It felt like she was choking on them.

"Hey, what have you done to her?" Ryan demanded.

"We need to get rid of these creatures and she's a distraction," Number One effortlessly pushed back a creature, "our father always taught us never to get distracted."

The Doctor threw her hands up in the air, trying to catch their attention, but they ignored her. The fam took over in convincing the children not to hurt or kill the creatures while the Doctor was suddenly blinded by a flash of light.

The next thing she knew, she was in another location. It looked like she was on the second floor. Thankfully, this one was empty. Light burned her vision briefly and when her eyes adjusted, she spotted Numbers Five, Six and Seven with her.

So, Number Five had moved them out of the firing line. She was annoyed her hadn't brought her fam with them, but they needed to stay down there and convince the children not to mercilessly kill those creatures.

"I think I see your point of view concerning those creatures," Number Five said, head held high and hands clasped behind him. "You said they're protecting their young. They're afraid."

The Doctor nodded, relieved that some of the children were seeing sense. 

"Well, I have a plan. There's no way to stop those imbeciles one their minds are set on something. Especially when it comes to playing superheroes, which is, unfortunately, quite often," Number Five rolled his eyes.

"That's brilliant," the Doctor tried to say, but her voice was still refusing to work. She made a gesture for him to elaborate, anyway, and thankfully he picked up on it. 

Number Five shared a look with his siblings and smirked.

* * *

The Doctor, back outside the building, opened the door a peak to peer inside. She was waiting for her cue which would hopefully be soon considering how those poor creatures were looking. The fam were trying their hardest, but were failing miserably. 

From where she was watching, she saw Number Six walk into the room, arms wrapped around his stomach as he looked at his siblings nervously.

"Guys!" He called to his siblings.

They turned their attention to him briefly, letting him know they'd heard him and were listening, before going back to their fight.

"I've got this," he told them, "go find Number Five and the Doctor upstairs, there's an exit up there."

"Retreat!" Number One shouted to his siblings at the sound of Six's plan.

The Doctor hated the way the word rolled off of One's tongue with ease. She hated the way these children acted like soldiers, like their only purpose in life was to fight and nothing more.

At the command, then rest of the children and the fambbegan backing up, heading towards a staircase at the back of the room which led to the second floor where Numbers Five and Seven were waiting.

Number Four hesitated and placed a hand on Six's shoulder with concern.

"Are you sure?" He asked Six. "I know it hurts."

Number Six nodded and, hesitantly, Number Four followed the rest of his siblings up the stairs.

Left alone with the creatures, Number Six backed up as they began to stalk towards him. Taking that as her cue, the Doctor opened the door fully and put her fingers in her mouth to whistle.

The noise wad loud enough for the creatures to hear her, but hopefully not loud enough for those upstairs to. The creatures stopped and turned towards her. At the sign of an exit, their goals changed and the came running towards her.

The Doctor ducked away and hid around the side of the building. A second later, the creatures came charging out of the building and disappesred through the foliage. The Doctor knew they wouldn't be gone for long, though, not with the eggs.

Speaking of, she had to rest rid of them for whatever Number Six was about to do. She had no idea what it was, but according to the children, the eggs needed to be safe.

She ran inside, waved at Number Six, grabbed the four eggs that had remained in the nests during the fight, and ran outside to place them safely outside.

She straightened up and moved back to the door. She gave Number Six a thumbs up and he meekly returned it, signalling it was okay to shut the door now. So she did.

Not even a second later, a horrific screeching noise pierced the air- that of an angry creature begging to be released. The window beside her shattered and, on instinct, the Doctor ducked. She looked up at the window to see what had broken it and found a tentacle poking out of it, writhing around, trying to find some sort of exit. Or simply trying to destroy whatever was in its wake.

She gaped in alarm. 

The screeching continued even as the tentacle slithered back into the building. From outside the Doctor could hear the havoc being wreaked. She had no idea where the tentacle had come from but, piecing two and two together, she realised it had come from Six. That was his ability. She could see now why he didn't want to talk about. Why his arms were always around his stomach.

Listening intently, the Doctor was sure she could hear, just beneath the overpowering screeching coming from the tentacles, Number Six's voice. Joining in the cacophony of screaming. Number Four, before he's left, had said that it hurt.

If the Doctor had known it would hurt him this much, she would have come up with a better plan.

As such, it was too late. The creatures had escaped, the children had be led away, and they'd created a diversion to let the others believe the creatures had been killed.

"Doctor! You're okay!" Yaz's voice caught her attention and she looked away from the window to see her fam and the children rounding the building to join her. "We thought you were upstairs but when we got there, you weren't. Are you okay?"

The Doctor opened her mouth to reply, only to remember she couldn't. She looked pointedly to Number Three and tapped her throat in indication. The girl rolled her eyes dramatically as she relented.

"Fine," she sighed, "I heard a rumour you could talk again."

It felt like something cold had washed over her and, for a second, her vision blurred only to gain clarity again.

"Right," she grinned, "never do that again, thank you. And, as for your question, Yaz, I heard noise and I followed it. Sounds like me, right?"

"Definitely," Graham and Ryan agreed in unison.

Yaz shook her head fondly.

The door behind her opened with a creak and out stepped Number Six, arms once again wrapped tightly around his torso. His head was down as he leant against the door to close it after himself.

"So?" Number One prompted.

"They're gone," Number Six confirmed, but the Doctor couldn't help but notice he hadn't said the creatures were dead.

"Good," Number One nodded, "well, I think that went well. Another successful mission."

"Mission?" Ryan repeated before the Doctor could.

"Well, yeah," Number One shrugged, "we eliminated the threat before it could do any damage. That was our mission."

"Mate, this weren't a mission. We were just explorin'," Ryan continued heatedly.

Before Ryan or Number One could reply (or the Doctor, as she readied herself to agree with her friend), she, Ryan, and Graham were yanked aside a little ways away by Yaz.

"What are you doin'?" Ryan asked Yaz.

Yaz looked over towards the children where they seemed to have already forgotten the situation and were rough housing.

"Look, you can't get mad at them," Yaz said.

"What?" The Doctor questioned with confusion.

"Why?" Ryan demanded. The Doctor nodded.

" _Because_ ," Yaz emphasised, "I've got a feelin' they don't know any better. They've got powers, right?"

"Hard to miss," Graham nodded.

"And their first instinct at the first sign of danger is to 'eliminate the threat'," Yaz continued, "they know how to fight and how to use their abilities to their advantage, and they work well as a team. Wherever they came from, whoever their parents are, I've got a feeling they were never taught any better. They've practically grown up as soldiers."

It was something the Doctor had given brief thought, she had to admit, before dismissing the idea as her overactive imagination. But the way Yaz explained it and the fact that she saw it, too, meant maybe her imagination hadn't simply her wild.

"Poor kids," Graham tsked with a shake of his head.

"Let's get back to the TARDIS," the Doctor decided, "they must be hungry. You humans always are."

"Why do I feel like that's a jab at me?" Graham placed his hands on his hips.

The Doctor shrugged innocently before bounding back over to the children.

"Okay, back to the TARDIS!" She grinned at them all and began to lead the way. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry of this is bad, i was going to sleep before i began writing this chapter so I'm kina half asleep
> 
> Also, for the sake of this fic, I've moved the apocalypse up one year so the time lines are kinda in sync. It won't affect the story
> 
> Anyways, i finally got to write the part that inspired this fic so enjoy x

After returning to the TARDIS, the children removed their coats and sunglasses, and placed them on the floor at the Doctor's request. She told them the Old Girl would get rid of them. Though the TARDIS groaned at that, the Doctor knew she would do so anyway. 

Once they reached the kitchen, the Doctor began to rummage through the cupboards for food. She wasn't sure what the kids liked, but she was sure they'd eat anything. Kids were like that.

After finding nothing in the cupboards that didn't require her to cook it, she moved to the fridge and swung the door open to find something else. 

She looked around with pursed lips until her eyes landed on a carton and an idea sprang to mind. It had been a while, but she probably still liked it, right?

With a grin, she grabbed the custard and opened the freezer to get the fish fingers. 

"Fish fingers and custard, anybody?" She addressed her fam and the kids.

"What?" Ryan asked.

"Fish fingers and custard?" One repeated with what looked like disgust on his face.

"Don't knock it till you try it," the Doctor told him and moved to the microwave to prepare their meal.

She opened the custard and poured it into a bowl then put the bowl into the microwave to heat. She input a random number and pressed the start button to let the custard heat up. Meanwhile, while that was heating, she dumped the entire box of fish fingers onto a tray and shoved them into the oven.

It was something the Old Girl had added back in her Eleventh regeneration. In fact, unlike the rest of the ship, the TARDIS hadn't really changed the kitchen much for quite a few regenerations now. The oven, however, was fairly new and had only been added when the Doctor had grown an obsession with fish fingers and custard.

It was a fast working oven, from some time in the far future. Fish fingers only took a couple of minutes to cook, much to the Doctor's delight.

When a _ding_ sounded out, the Doctor gasped and rushed to the microwave to remove the custard. She almost dropped the bowl when she grabbed it, as it was so hot, but she managed to place it on the counter just before she did.

Leaving the bowl, she opened the oven door and grinned at the sight of the fish fingers. 

"Brilliant," she said aloud and grabbed an oven glove to take the tray out.

"Smells nice, Doc, but I've gotta admit, I ain't too keen on trying them with custard," Graham commented from where he sat at the table.

"You'll love 'em, promise!" The Doctor reassured him.

She grabbed a large plate and put the bowl on it, then arranged the fish fingers around the edge of the plate. With a final thought, she took a bunch of glasses from the cupboards and handed them along with a carton of orange juice to her fam.

With the biggest of smiles, she placed the food in the centre of the table for everyone.

"I will be honest," she began as she settled herself in between Five and Graham, "I haven't tried this in my current body so I'm not sure if I still like it."

"Oh, brilliant," Graham rolled his eyes jokingly.

"Right, then, no time like the present," she ignored Graham and grabbed a fish finger.

Following her lead, Yaz hesitantly took one as did Ryan and Graham. After sharing cautious glances, the children followed suit and they each took a fish finger. 

"On the count of three?" The Doctor prompted.

"Count of three," Yaz agreed.

"One," the Doctor started.

"Two," Ryan said.

"Three," Yaz finished.

Together, they all dipped their fish fingers into the bowl of custard and brought them to their mouths to take a bite. 

They all sat silently for a moment as they chewed and contemplated on whether or not they liked it. Then, after giving it some thought, the Doctor made a face of disgust and painfully swallowed the rest of it. 

"That is bleeding disgusting," Graham said, face screwed up.

The Doctor nodded in agreement, wondering how on Earth she had managed to eat fish fingers and custard in her Eleventh regeneration. How had the Ponds managed, come to think of it? 

"I dunno, I kind of like it," Ryan shrugged nonchalantly.

"Really?" Yaz asked as she placed down her half eaten fish finger. It seemed she didn't like it either.

"This is delicious," Four said, reaching out and grabbing another fish finger. He dipped it into the custard and ate it in one go.

"It's okay," Five shrugged, but he didn't go for another like his brother had.

"It's a bit of a weird combination, but I suppose it's all right," Three said.

"It's horrible," Two frowned.

"What about you, Seven? What do you think?" Yaz asked the quiet girl.

Looking up at the mention of her name, Seven's cheeks reddened slightly. She shrugged quietly in response.

"It's nice," she said, but the Doctor couldn't be sure if she was simply saying that to please them or if she actually liked it.

Deciding to rescue the poor girl and draw the attention away from her lest she sink any further into her seat, the Doctor grabbed her glass and filled it with orange juice.

"I have no idea how I used to eat it," she said, "honestly, that's the worst thing I've ever tasted."

"And you eat soil all the time," Ryan chuckled.

"Oi! Soil is actually quite nice, thank you very much." 

"To worms, maybe," Graham joined in.

"Wait, you eat soil?" Three spoke up in disbelief.

"'Course! You can find out a lot about a place by eating its soil," the Doctor nodded.

Three and One shared a look, but the Doctor paid them no mind, her gaze falling to Six. The boy was blinking heavy eyes and staring at the table. Looking at his siblings, she realised despite their best efforts to look wide awake, they actually seemed to be really tired.

Sometimes, in her excitement for company and an adventure, she forgot that humans needed at least eight hours of sleep everyday. It was ridiculous, if you asked her (which, thinking back, no one ever did). How can you live life to its fullest when you were constantly sleeping all of the time? There were so many things you could be doing instead of sleeping.

Still, humans needed sleep- especially children- so, she got up from her chair with an announcement that they needed to sleep.

"It's getting late," she told the kids at their disappointed faces, trying not to feel bad, "you humans need your sleep!"

"But where are we supposed to sleep?" Number One asked.

"There'll be rooms here for you all. I'm sure the fam can lead the way?" She shot her fam a questioning look and Yaz smiled while Ryan and Graham nodded.

"Course we will," Graham agreed as he rose from his seat.

"Yeah, we don't mind," Ryan added, joining Graham.

"Come on," Yaz told the kids.

One by one, the children left their seats and followed her fam out of the kitchen. She smiled at the way Two, Four, and Six whispered to each other with bright eyes and the way Five hung at the back of the group with Seven.

Once she was left alone, the Doctor stared at the bowl of fish fingers and custard. Just to be sure, she grabbed a fish finger and dipped it into the yellow custard. She bit the end off and chewed thoughtfully for a second.

Almost immediately, her face screwed up and she tossed the rest of the fish finger onto the table. 

"Nope, still don't like it."

* * *

Half an hour later, the Doctor found herself back in the control room. She was hunched over the monitor, brows furrowed in concentration as she read the screen. She didn't think she'd find anything of interest, if she was being honest, but what she had found was intriguing.

She reached forward and scrolled down the document, eyes tracking the words carefully. Every so often, a picture would crop up and she'd stare for a moment in contemplation. It almost felt impossible to get her head around and she couldn't help but think back a few hours and wonder how much of what she'd been told was a blatant lie.

"All right, Doc?"

The Doctor startled and turned around to spot her fam entering the control room. Graham gave a small wave in greeting and Yaz smiled.

"What're you doing?" Yaz asked.

"Just reading," the Doctor said.

"Reading what?" Ryan questioned.

The Doctor glanced back at the screen and wondered whether or not she should tell them, but then the logical part of her brain won out. She supposed they deserved to know as much as she did. 

With a gesture of her hand, she beckoned them over to the monitor and stood back a bit. The fam all joined her at the console and looked at the monitor as the Doctor flicked a lever and the words changed from Gallifreyan to English.

"What's all this?" Graham asked, putting on his glasses.

"The children," the Doctor said, "you were half right, Yaz. They have been taught to fight. They're actually part of a crime-fighting group called the Umbrella Academy."

"'Crime-fighting?" Ryan repeated.

"Yes. Their father, or more specifically, the man who adopted them, formed the group. They went on their first mission when they were twelve. It was a bank robbery and Sir Reginald Hargreeves sent them off to fight the bank robbers," the Doctor recounted what she'd read.

"That's horrible," Yaz said, "powers or not, you can't put your child in danger like that."

"Thing is, I did some research on their father as well and it's strange. One minute he doesn't exist and the next, he does," the Doctor paced.

"What does that mean?" Ryan asked.

"Good question," the Doctor grinned, "when I couldn't get much on him, I dug a little deeper, expanded the search past just Earth and, as it turns out, he did exist prior to adopting seven children, just not on Earth!"

"So, what are you saying? He's an alien?" Graham prompted.

"Exactly right, Graham. Gold star," the Doctor patted him on the back.

"Oh, cheers, Doc," Graham chuckled.

"Wait, so, if he's an alien, what's he doin' on Earth? And why did he adopt those kids?" Yaz asked.

"Well, this is where it gets interesting," the Doctor moved back to the monitor and scrolled back up.

When she stopped, the page displayed something akin to a golden particle. Almost like pollen, only shinier.

"See that?" She asked, to which her friends nodded. "This is an alien particle. Some species, they don't reproduce like humans and most other species. There all different kinds of ways it can happen. It seems that this species, whatever it is, this is how _they_ do it."

"I don't understand," Graham shook his head.

The Doctor pointed to the particles shown on screen.

"Simply put, these little golden particles are children," she explained, "this is how the Umbrella Academy children were born."

"Wait, so are they aliens as well?" Ryan asked.

"Yes."

"But they said they were human," Yaz pointed out.

"I know. I don't think they know," the Doctor said as she moved back and began to pace again. "When I was doing my research, I took a peak at their history. They aren't the only children on Earth with powers. There are forty-three, including the Umbrella Academy, and Reginald Hargreeves tried to adopt them all, but he only got these seven."

"Why would he even want kids with powers?" Ryan asked. "If he wanted to fight crime so bad, why not become a copper?"

"It wasn't just about fighting crime," the Doctor revealed cautiously.

"What was it about, then?" Yaz frowned.

The Doctor sighed and ran a hand through her hair. 

"Doc?" Graham prompted.

"He was trying to stop the apocalypse."

Silence reigned following her revelation and the Doctor almost couldn't take it. She prayed one of her friends would speak up, but none of them did. Instead, they stared quietly at her. The Doctor couldn't even read any of their expressions.

Just when the Doctor had been growing antsy and thinking of what to say, Graham spoke. 

"The bloody what?" He squawked.

The Doctor winced. 

"The apocalypse," she repeated.

"What apocalypse?" Yaz demanded.

"Apparently there was an apocalypse near your time. The Umbrella Academy was formed in order to stop it. I don't know, the details are a little sparse," the Doctor shrugged apologetically.

"Well, did they stop it?" Graham asked.

"Like I said, the details are a little sparse. I can't even get an exact death date for the children. It says they either died age twenty-nine or... Well, I can't really make sense of it. It does say here, though, that Number Six died at age nineteen. It doesn't say how," the Doctor frowned, "the only one who doesn't have a death date is Number Five. He just has a disappearance date. He disappeared... Oh. At the age of thirteen. How old are they, again?"

"... Thirteen," Yaz muttered.

"Hang on, they _all_ died at the age of twenty-nine?" Ryan pointed out.

"Yes. Same day. First of April, twenty-twenty."

"But, that's three months from our time," Graham said.

"Ah. I believe we may have a problem, then," the Doctor winced.

"What do we do?" Yaz asked with worry.

"The only thing we can do. We have to stop the apocalypse."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this :)
> 
> Also, I will literally be forever in debt to anyone willing to draw team TARDIS and the Umbrella kids sharing a bowl of fish fingers and custard
> 
> I swear, i will love you forver x


	5. Chapter 5

"How are we supposed to do that? Like you said, the details are sparse," Yaz pointed out.

"I know," the Doctor pursed her lips, "tomorrow we take the children back to their own time, then we go to twenty-twenty and do a bit of investigating. We have to figure out what causes this so-called apocalypse and how to stop it. I've been travelling through time and space for thousands of years and I've never heard of an apocalypse on Earth in your time. This is worrying."

"Just in our time?" Ryan asked with wide eyes.

"Nothing for you to worry about," the Doctor smiled awkwardly.

"Right then, stop the apocalypse. We can do that," Graham said optimistically.

Ryan and Yaz nodded, backing him up. 

"You're right. We can do this. I believe in us. For now, though, you lot should head to bed," the Doctor told them, "it's going to be a busy day tomorrow. You'll need all the rest you can get."

"Okay. Goodnight, Doctor," Yaz smiled then left the control room, followed by Graham ans Ryan after they'd said goodnight to the Doctor, too.

Once they'd disappeared down the corridor, the Doctor turned back to the monitor and swiped across the screen. It changed from what she'd shown her fam to a picture of a woman with dark hair and violin resting under her chin.

She frowned and began to read.

* * *

The Doctor was later startled from her daydream by the sound of children quickly approaching her from the corridor. She looked up from her assortment of bits and bobs, dismantled on the floor, and smiled when she caught sight of the Umbrella Academy children entering the console room.

"Is it morning already?" She asked as she got up from the floor.

"It's hard to tell in your ship, but I expect so," Five shrugged.

"Great, take a look at this," the Doctor hurried away from the children and rounded the console.

"Didn't you go to sleep last night?" Three asked as the Doctor rummaged around under the console.

"Nah, don't need as much asleep as you humans do," the Doctor answered.

"You say you're an alien, but you look human," Three pointed out.

"Yeah, well you look Time Lord," the Doctor retorted just as she triumphantly pulled what she'd been looking for from under the console.

"Is that what you are? A Time Lord?"

"Aha! Look at this!"

The Doctor ignored the pestering and held out her find for the children to see. They looked confused and glanced at each other in confusion.

"What is it?" One asked.

"Wh- it's a squirrel!" The Doctor explained obviously.

"It doesn't look like a squirrel," Three said.

"Yes, it does," the Doctor frowned then brought the squirrel up to her own face. "And it's clockwork."

"How is it clockwork?" Five questioned curiously.

"Well, it moves around makes noises," the Doctor smiled proudly. "Look."

Crouching down, the Doctor placed the clockwork squirrel down on the floor and gave it a once over with her buzzing sonic.

Dutifully, the squirrel's eyes lit up yellow and it began to walk around in circles on the floor, making chittering noises like that of a real squirrel.

With a smile, Seven knelt down in front of the Doctor and watched the squirrel move. 

"Did you make it?" She asked.

"Yep! My last face made it. Quite proud it, actually," the Doctor informed her.

"It's cute," Seven said.

The Doctor grinned widely at Seven. 

"Mornin', Doc. Mornin', kids."

The Doctor looked away from the squirrel and towards where Graham, Ryan, and Yaz were entering the control room.

"Oh, mornin', fam!" The Doctor greeted them merrily. "Sleep well?"

"As well as can be expected," Graham nodded then handed the Doctor a cup of tea.

"Ta," the Doctor thanked him and took a sip, "perfect as usual, Graham. Ten points."

Graham shot Ryan and Yaz a smug look to which they rolled their eyes at him. Lately he'd been getting a lot more points than them.

After downing the rest of her tea, the Doctor put the cup in Graham's hands and moved to the console. She began typing away on the monitor and twisting dials. 

"So, what are we doing today?" Number One asked.

The Doctor paused in her tinkering of the console and looked up at his and his siblings' expectant faces. She winced guiltily and shot a pleading look to her fam.

As expected, they shrugged their shoulders, leaving it to her. She was still socially awkward and had no idea what to say, but she still reluctantly stepped away from the console to stand in front of the seven children.

"Uh, so, well, the thing is," she began, earning herself a raised eyebrow from Numbers Five and Three, "well, I have to take you home."

"What? Why?" Three asked.

"Because you have one. And you're children, I can't just haul you around the universe. It's not safe," the Doctor tried to explain.

"We can take care of ourselves," One pointed out.

"But you're still children," the Doctor told them, "as long as you're travelling with me, I have a duty of care to you. And if anything ever happened to you, that would be on me. It would be my fault. I don't want any of you getting hurt."

"I don't want to go home," Six muttered.

"I know and I'm sorry, but you have to," the Doctor sighed. Her hearts hurt at the sight of the forlorn children in front of her, but she knew she had to out her foot down lest they get hurt. Plus, there was the fact of the apocalypse that needed to be solved urgently. "I should have taken you home the minute you teleported on board, but I didn't and that's my fault. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. We understand," One nodded.

"Thank you," the Doctor pursed her lips.

Casting one finaly glance at the dejected children, she stepped away and back towards the console where she'd already inputted the coordinates for the Umbrella Academy.

They would undoubtedly have questions about how she knew where they lived, but she could just tell them the TARDIS was telepathic, which, technically, was true so she wouldn't be really lying.

"Everyone ready?" She asked with an excited grin.

Quickly, the fam grabbed hold of whatever was closest to them while the Umbrella kids took hold of each other, except Seven who seemed to have latched onto Ryan.

"Off we go, then!"

The Doctor pulled the lever and immediately they were thrown into motion. The ship rocked and shook, and the Doctor ran around the console piloting them and making sure they got to their destination safely.

Eventually, after a couple of minutes where they were practically tossed about, the TARDIS landed with a light thud, alerting her passengers to their landing. The Doctor stepped away from the console with a proud grin and placed her hands on her hips.

"Perfect landing," she announced.

"You call that perfect?" Graham joked.

"I could try again, if you like?" She retorted with a grin.

"No, no, you're all right," Graham chuckled.

"Are we home?" Seven asked.

"Yep! An hour after you left," the Doctor informed the kids.

"An hour?" Five questioned curiously.

"I tried for five minutes, but this was as best as I could do," the Doctor shrugged.

"Amazing," Five said, brushing the console with his fingertips. 

"Oh, well thank you," the Doctor grinned.

"I was talking to the ship," Five told her.

"I knew that," the Doctor said while Ryan snickered.

The door creaked open and the Doctor looked over to find Six and Four at the doors, peering out. They shared a look and then Six exited the ship. The Doctor could just see passed Four's head as Six looked around.

"It's Five's room," Four turned and told them.

With a flash of blue light, Five disappeared from beside the console and reappeared outside of the ship, next to Six. 

The Doctor joined Four at the doors and peaked curiously out into the bedroom. There wasn't much there, just a bed pushed up against a wall, a desk with some papers littered about, and a bookshelf. 

The floors were wooden and there was a thin rug covering most of it, while the walls were an unpleasant shade of green.

There were a few bits and bobs resting on the windowsill, but not much which the Doctor found unusual for a young boy's room.

"Not much in here," she commented towards Five.

"I like to keep things organised," Five replied casually.

"Clearly," the Doctor said.

One by one, the rest of the kids trailed out of her TARDIS and the Doctor found herself standing just outside the ship as Two, the last to leave, joined his siblings.

When they were all out and back home, the Doctor shoved her hands deep into her coat pockets, fiddling with her psychic paper and screwdriver to keep herself still. Goodbyes had never been her favourite thing in the universe.

"Well, guess this is it," she began.

"Guess it is," Five replied, standing in front of all his siblings.

"Will we see you again, Doctor?" Seven asked.

The Doctor hesitated. How much could she tell them? How much did they know? How much had Sir Reginald Hargreeves told them about the apocalypse?

"Maybe," she said eventually.

That seemed to satisfy Seven as she nodded her head, hope gleaming in her brown irises, partially hideen behind her bangs.

"Goodbye, Doctor," Number One bid.

"Goodbye."

With her final farewell, the Doctor nodded her head and slipped back inside the TARDIS. She closed the doors softly behind her and walked slowly back to the console. 

She could feel her fam's gazes burning into the back of her head, but she didn't let herself look at them until she'd pulled the dematerialisation lever and sent them back off into the vortex.

She wondered briefly what the kids would think of seeing the Old Girl disappear from view.

"So, what do we do now?" Graham was the first to ask the second the ship touched ground (metaphorically, of course. They were really in space).

"Now... Now we stop the apocalypse."

* * *

"Right, fam, I want you to remember that what you're about to see probably isn't going to be pleasant," the Doctor informed her friends.

"We know, Doctor," Yaz said, still managing to look optimistic despite the seriousness on her face.

"You don't have to come. You can stay in the TARDIS while I take a look around."

"We want to come," Ryan told her, "this is our planet, our time, we want to help as much as we can."

Despite the nagging in the back of her mind that told her she should probably, really insist that they stay in the TARDIS, she nodded her head in response and tried to relaxed a little bit. 

She had no idea what awaited them outside the doors, but she knew it would be what it said on the tin: apocalyptic.

With a deep breath, the Doctor made sure she had her sonic in her pocket, mostly for reassurance than actual use in an apocalyptic wasteland, then made her way to the doors and opened them. 

What she found on the other side of the doors was nothing she could have ever prepared herself for in a million years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap for this part in the 'this is going to get messy' series :)
> 
> I love how this is going so far and I'm super excited to start the second part of this series, but there's still a lot of planning to do before I can begin writing, so stay tuned and thank you so much for getting this far :p
> 
> As always, kudos/comments are greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading x
> 
> Instagram: @unluckiestfridays


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